A nation of childrenShortly before the debate started Maria Bartiromo warmed up the room by telling the audience they are super because the local Detroit tv newscasts were focusing on this debate.

This isn’t partisan because CNBC would sling this same pabulum at a Democratic debate, but have we really become a nation of third graders that require someone telling us how special and wonderful we are?

Herman Cain < Tony RobbinsHerman Cain was asked about Italy. Instead of answering this direct question, he muttered bland pleasantries about growing the U.S. economy. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, says the U.S. shouldn’t get involved with the European crisis—ruling out bailing out U.S. banks with Italian debt.

This is a cogent and valid argument, which is why Romney is a real candidate while Cain is just a motivational speech huckster using the presidential race as a brand-building tour.

Jon Huntsman: Smartest Guy in the RoomJon Huntsman says six banks control two-thirds of the GDP. Banks too big to fail, he says, are a problem. “We need to get back to properly-sized banks.” He cautions that there are no easy answers to the nation’s complex economic problems. Huntsman also wants to charge big banks a fee to basically provide a self-funded “rainy day fund” to take care of the banks in event of another 2008-style situation. He actually received some applause for that line.

At one point, he said he’d like to be president of the 99% and the 1%. He has 0% chance of being either in 2012. However, a Jon Huntsman-Chris Christie (or Christie-Huntsman) ticket in 2016 could be an attractive proposition.

Huntsman reminds me of the GOP candidate for president in Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here: “Walt Trowbridge, possible Republican candidate for President, suffering from the deficiency of being too honest and disinclined to promise that he could work miracles, was insisting that we live in the United States of America and not on a golden highway to Utopia.”

A moment of cognitive disconnectRick Santorum wants to create a special 0% tax rate for manufacturers. Which he said his plan “isn’t picking winners and losers.” Tell that to UPS and Jiffy Lube.Herman Cain’s non-denial denialHerman Cain is asked about sexual harassment. The crowd boos the question. He says he’s opposed to trying people in the court of public opinions. Crowd applauds. He then criticizes, generically, people who “come forward with false accusations,” What he doesn’t say is: “I didn’t do it.” It’s all non-denial denials, as Jason Robards said in All the President’s Men.

9-9-9 at 8-3-28:32 and the first reference to Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. He says it’s super because it throws out the current tax code, which he says is awful and gross. He’s asked how he can ensure 9-9-9 doesn’t become 19-19-19. After complaining about how the current tax code has “sneaky” taxes, Cain immediately turns around and says: “Tax codes don’t raise taxes. Politicians do.” That’s a spectacular flip-flop.

Battlefield promotion?Michele Bachmann promoted Obama strategist David Axelrod to the rank of general. Then she says 47% of Americans don’t pay taxes, ignoring the regressive payroll tax completely that everyone pays without any standard deduction on the first $106,000 of income. Shrinking government actually involves, you know, shrinking governmentAfter 36 minutes of listening to everyone complain about big government and high taxes, Ron Paul is the first candidate to actually talk about cutting spending. He wants to cut a trillion dollars out of the federal budget.

Let’s be honest, tax cuts are easy but spending cuts are hard. Everyone on this stage not named Ron Paul is just another George W. Bush-style tax cut-and-spend Republican.

To that point, when the other candidates gripe about “picking winners and losers” they always forget to mention that one of Washington’s most expensive winner/loser picks is the heavy subsidies to the corn industry. Do you think that oversight might have something to do with Iowa’s critical role in the nomination process?

The housing market and a regulation that workedNewt Gingrich, unlikely voice of reason, wants to break up Fannie and Freddie because they’re too big and that bigness creates artificial bubbles. Herman Cain is asked about Fannie and Freddie and just natters on about 9-9-9. I don’t think Herman Cain has the first clue what Fannie and Freddie are or what they do, or anything else.

Pressed, he says he would privatize them. They were private when they created the last bubble. Just sayin’…

Rick Perry says Texas doesn’t have as bad of a foreclosure problem, and then says regulations are the problem. Actually, Texas’s foreclosure rate is affected by an interesting regulation that prevents homeowners from borrowing more money on their home than they initially paid, thus making it harder for reckless homeowners to get underwater.

A call for centrism of sortsNewt Gingrich wants to hold seven three-hour Lincoln-Douglas debates with Barack Obama. 21 hours of Gingrich and Obama talking? Sign me up for that Time-Life box set.

That said, Gingrich was rightly annoyed by moderators' health care in 30 seconds or less question. That Lincoln-Douglas marathon debate idea is daffy, but there has to be a happy medium between 21 hours and 30 seconds for policy discussions.Rick Perry is blockedRick Perry would do away with the Departments of Education and Commerce. Also a third department, but he can’t remember which one. Ron Paul suggested to Perry that he was thinking of the EPA. Perry said it was something else. But what was it? Later, he says he finally remembered that he would also cut the Department of Energy.

The FICA tax cutSocial Security is going to be in the red because, Rick Santelli says, of a bipartisan effort to lower the payroll tax. Gingrich says he wouldn’t reverse that tax cut. Neither would Romney. Then Romney said we shouldn’t pass debt along to future generations. Surprisingly, Michele Bachmann is the only person on stage to say you can’t pay for the baby boom Social Security obligation while at the same time cutting the revenue stream to Social Security. The college mortgageRon Paul wants to eliminate all student loans. How would students pay for college without loans, moderators ask? The same way they pay for computers and cell phones, Paul says. Except students pay for computers, et al with student loans.

No one pays for college with a mcjob. No one.All politics crony capitalism is localRon Paul used the debate's last word to rail against crony capitalism. Worth noting that Mitt Romney's 2008 national finance chair was none other than Michigan's own John Rakolta, he of the EDGE Opportunities/Wayne County Business Development Corporation. If that scheme isn't crony capitalism, I don't know what is.